Jon and the Whomobile (1974)

You should know I like a picture or two of Jon Pertwee by now; He's so iconically the 70s

 

Here he is showing off his new custom built futuristic car which would go on to feature in a couple Doctor Who stories

I "met" this car some years later at the Stoneleigh Town and Country Show and have to say it was just as wonderful in reality.  Looking back I can't help feeling the vehicle should have generated a diecast toy or plastic model kit at the very least.  I would have been so up for one of those.  Still would if anyone wanted to play catch-up

 

These are some of the nicest pictures I've ever seen of Whomobile and they are certainly clearer than any images captured from the TV episodes.

And there you have it, not the first flying car I fell in love with as a kid but certainly the best looking
....and no, the other one wasn't Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.


Steve

Doctor Who Weetabix Advert (1977)

Don't want to go all Doctor Who on you, every post, but that show is writ through my childhood like a stick of Blackpool rock and I've just found this cleaned up version of the Weetabix/Doctor Who advert with the big red Dalek never looking better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOBHV8qKyAU

 

Either that kid is breakfasting in a Dalek base or the hallway of his house has very questionable décor that is going to attract passing space invaders.  Either way, I think he needs to take some responsibility for what happens next!

 

Steve

Who and the Wizzard (1973)

Roy Wood, the Wizzard of 70's glam rock meets the Time Lord.  So 70's it hurts!


Steve

Doctor Who and the Tomorrow People (1973)

Benign Time Lord endorses the rights of Homo Superior to have their own long running science-fiction TV show.

Steve

From Sin to Who - Recycling the Future

How did this:

Madam Sin (1972) ITC

End up here:

Doctor Who Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) BBC

Well lets go for a bit of a ramble and speculate...

ITC (Incorporated Television Company) or ITC Entertainment as it was known in America was a British television production and distribution company best remembered for a string of cult TV shows made during the 60s and 70s.

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Champions, The Prisoner, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Stingray, Joe 90, Man in a Suitcase, Department S, The Persuaders!, Jason King and The Protectors, to name but a few of the ones we may look at here one day.

In addition to television programming, ITC also produced several feature films, including; Capricorn One, The Eagle Has Landed, The Boys from Brazil and Madam Sin.

The latter; Madam Sin, had started life as a pilot for a potential TV series but had failed to excite the American network schedulers and so, following its initial broadcast in 1972 on ABC, it saw distribution to the rest of the world in the aforementioned guise of a movie.

And, having recently viewed the cinema trailer, I can now identify it as one of those half remembered movies I started watching on my portable TV late one night in the early 80's (?) without ever knowing its name.  I think I fell asleep without seeing it to conclusion but I do intend to rectify that quite soon because it looks like fun.

Its perhaps also worth mentioning at this point that ITC was founded by television mogul Lew Grade who, with fingers in many other TV pies of the day, was also co-owner of Century 21 Productions, alongside founder and creator Gerry Anderson.

Now when the Century 21 partnership ended in 1970, many of its costumes, sets, and props from its various TV productions were sold off to hire companies, with quite a few of the smaller pieces going to the special effects boys from the BBC who, rumour has it, filled up a van with goodies for 70 quid.

So my guess is that the sonic gun from Madam Sin was mixed in with the Century 21 stuff as part of the clearance and as such destined to be recycled as a dinosaur stun gun in Doctor Who.

There are a few other bits and bobs from the back of the van that are worth looking at in the future but this seemed as good a place as any to start, if only because its that little bit more obscure than the sonic screw driver and various spaceships... and a bit of speculation usually brings the experts out into the open and starts discussion.

In the mean time it is a hansom prop and it wouldn't surprise me at all if it had featured in further roles as well as these.

Steve

Sun, Sea and Cybermen (1973)

Stiffkey Marsh and Cley Beach, Norfolk, sometime in 1973.  An important birthday celebration looms and actors Anneke Wills and Michael Craze are invited to improvise a Doctor Who'ish scene or two for the Radio Times 10th anniversary special.

Of all the "companions and monsters" pictures taken for the souvenir magazine, this photo shoot is perhaps the most successful in capturing a sense of story, and a very Doctor Who kind of story at that.  Not just because its Ben and Polly and the Cybermen but because of locations that are at odds with mechanical men and because its aliens in the English ideal.

What happens next?  Well obviously a sunshine yellow Edwardian Roadster skids to a halt and the firm but kindly voice of an eccentrically dressed, white haired gentleman commands that if they want to live, they should get in the car and quickly.  They accelerate away at great speed as cyber weaponry tracks their escape with a chaser of smoke billowing explosive charges.  Later when they are safe, he will ask them if they are alright and call them by their names.  They will be surprised because his is a face they have never seen before.  But when he tells them who he is, they'll know straight away that its true because they were there the last time.  Of course its the Doctor, who else could it be....and then the adventure will begin again.

Steve

Cybermen - 1975 to 1982

I've been thinking about the Cybermen recently, following a couple of very good articles in a recent issues of DWM. Now I'm old enough to remember watching The Revenge of the Cybermen on first transmission back in 1975 and I was still watching when they made their surprise return in Earthshock in 1982.

 

Somewhere in between that I became a "proper" Doctor Who fan and as such you have to decide who your favourite monster is and for me it was the Cybermen.  Sure the Daleks were good but the Cybermen were much better, much scarier, much more unknown and unknowable.  As a modern fan of the new series, I'm very much of the opposite opinion because the new writers really understand the Daleks, where as the Cybermen have been reduced to tin plated soldiers, looking for a good plot.  And with hindsight, they always were.

 

Anyway my recent thoughts were about how and why the Cybermen had become my favourites back then, especially when there was so little of them on screen for so long.  And we are going back to a time before the internet, video and with little or no repeat of old shows on any of the two BBC channels. How then did they even feature in my younger life.

 

How indeed...

 

Revenge of the Cybermen 1975

 



1975

1975

 

 

1975

 

1976

 

1977

 

1977

1978

 

1978

 

1979

 

Black Legacy - Comic strip 1980

 

Deathworld - comic strip 1980

Throwback - Soul of a Cyberman comic strip  (1980)

 

1981

Earthshock in 1982

 

And there you have it; they were hiding in plain sight.   Interesting though how almost no two are quite the same and at least half are not the correct version for the story they are meant to be illustrating.  And yet the Cyber brand is clearly identifiable and strong enough to carry the race's reputation across the decade.

 

Steve

Behind the Planet of the Daleks (1973)

Welcome to the Beachfields Quarry in Surrey.  It's the 2nd or 3rd of January 1973 and we are here filming the Doctor Who story; The Planet of the Daleks.  Come the spring when the story transmits, this will be the planet Spiridon, just one more alien world to be subjugated by the tyranny of the Dalek forces.

Steve

Eagle Annual (1973) and other Christmas Annuals (1972)

 

 

 

Christmas 1972 I was 4 but heading towards 5.  I don't know what annual I got that year. I've no memories and no images have yet to trigger a sense of ownership.  My older brother had The Aeronauts and Star Trek.  I know because they lurked around the family home for years after, until being rescued by my younger brother -Who probably still has them stashed away somewhere safe, to this very day.

Looking at the selection above I like to think I would have gone for the Wham! and Pow! Annual but I don't think that's what I would have got.  Well intentioned parents would have picked me something more cartoon in style and probably rabbit or teddy bear based.  Which got me thinking..

I had a lot of cowboy and soldier toys when I was a nipper; Airfix, Timpo and Britains.  I was just looking through a few online catalogues and was almost embarrassed by the realisation that my parents had bought me so much of it.  Maybe my grandparents contributed too.  I was ill a lot as a youngster which meant time off school and day trips to the nearby town to visit the elderly relatives for a cup of tea and a catch up.  Maybe they felt sorry for me, or maybe it was just a bribe to keep me quiet and distracted while they talked.  Who knows or really cares but the end result was a very large and full toy box.

Anyway that Eagle Annual atop, reminded me of this little beautie below.  I owned this, I floated this in the sink and even with the metal bar at the bottom I seem to remember that it always listed to one side.  I had a bit of an underwater thing going on back then.  The oceans were a strange alien world and the frog men were its astronaut explorers.  I watched Jacques Cousteau, I owned the Ladybird book of Underwater Exploration and I played Voyage to the bottom of the Sea in the playground when there.

So I now realise that we'll probably have to look at these things in more detail as well as the realisation that the 60's into the 70's was as much about the oceans as it was of space.


Steve